JUNE 8, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
VET,
continued from Page A1
tractors, farm equipment and
an old Chevy, it didn’t take
long for his superiors to note
his aptitude for mechanical
troubleshooting.
“They sent me to the
wheeled vehicle school where
they asked dumb little ques-
tions I thought everyone
should know,” Thompson
said. He breezed through the
coursework. But, when he re-
ported to the 16th Division,
Thompson discovered they
didn’t need another vehicle
mechanic, they needed soldiers
who could fi x a busted tank.
He went back to Fort Knox
to become certifi ed in tank
maintenance and repairs. Tak-
ing classes was fi ne with him
because it meant he was get-
ting shipped overseas. After
completing his second round
of classes, Thompson was sta-
tioned in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
for about a year before receiv-
ing orders to deploy to the
European Front in February
1945.
Thompson
landed
in
France and stayed there until
late April when orders came
down from Patton to begin
moving north through Ger-
many toward Czechoslovakia
(in the area which is now the
modern Czechia).
“In Germany, we went
through towns that were like
driving through a rock quarry.
We had to bulldoze the path to
get through the town. There
George
Thompson in
his Emerald
Pointe resi-
dence with
a gift from
the mayor of
Nýrany.
KEIZERTIMES/
Eric A. Howald
was tremendous devastation,”
Thompson said. The Division
traveled through Nuremberg
making sure the last of the
Nazi forces had been cleared
out and then made a last push
into Czechoslovakia.
About 60 miles into the
Czech territory, Thompson
was part of a unit tasked with
going street-to-street in Nýra-
ny looking for occupation
forces.
“I was walking along a
stone wall and someone fi red
on me from somewhere. I got
some rock chips in my face,
that’s was how close it was,”
Thompson said. A short fi re-
The best gifts for
fi ght ensued, but Allied forces
won the day.
After resisting German
troops, along with others who
surrendered, were rounded up,
Thompson was one of several
soldiers charged with usher-
ing the captives toward the
infantry troops following the
armored division. Along the
way, Thompson ended up hav-
ing to protect the captives from
the Czech citizens.
“They went at those sol-
diers with sticks, rakes, hoes,
whatever they had. They were
everywhere, and I did what I
could, but our medics patched
up more Germans than they
did our troops that day.”
From Nýrany, the division
continued east to Pilsen.
“Pilsen loyalists were call-
ing for help to repel the Ger-
mans. Patton gave our division
the word to charge in and take
care of the city,” Thompson
said. Thompson said there were
about 6,000 German troops in
Pilsen and the Allies sent in ap-
proximately 400.
“We took them pretty much
by surprise. We located the
commanding general and told
him we had him surrounded,
which he wasn’t,” Thompson
said. The general signed sur-
render paperwork and then
shot himself on the spot.
While the 16th Division
didn’t loiter in Pilsen long,
Thompson made the most
of the time. He and a friend
he had known since the day
he enlisted, Vernon Lewellen,
were dispatched to the Pilsen
Airport with orders to jerry
rig the German vehicles left
to rot.
“There were airplanes,
trucks, wagons, jeeps, tanks,
and more. If they weren’t al-
ready ruined, they tried to
destroy what was left. They’d
reach under the dash yank all
the wires out. My job was put-
ting a big battery in the back
of a German jeep and then go
down the line to see if I could
start them,” Thompson said.
He hotwired as many as he
could and the Allies turned
over the vehicles to the Pilsen
citizens to help with rebuilding
efforts. He and Lewellen were
at the airport together on May
8 when they learned Allies had
accepted the unconditional
surrender of the German Na-
zis.
DADS
& GRADS
The 16th Division kept
moving north to a “cow-town
with no bar,” but were recalled
to Germany not long after
VE Day. In Germany, Thomp-
son was promoted to motor
sergeant and oversaw a crew
of captive German soldiers
who did all the dirty work.
He remained there for about
six months before returning
home.
Back in the U.S., Thomp-
son married his wife, Ruth and
had four kids, two girls and
two boys. The couple retired to
Prescott, Ariz., before Ruth’s
health problems led them to
Keizer around 2008.
After falling out of touch
with Lewellen after the war,
the two reconnected years later
and it was Lewellen who called
him in 1990 with a proposi-
tion to return to Czechia to be
honored as part of the coun-
try’s liberating forces.
At the time, Thompson
didn’t even have a passport and
nixed the idea, but Lewellen
called again after he returned
from the fi rst Liberation Day
ceremony in 1990.
“He came back and said ‘you
can’t imagine what they did for
us.’ They had parades and mon-
uments. I went in 1991 and it
was everything Vernon said
and more,” Thompson said.
He’s gone back 14 times
since his original trip and re-
cently returned from his most
recent outing.
In 1995, on the 50th an-
niversary of Czechia’s libera-
tion, Thompson delivered his
speech on a stage next to the
Cathedral of St. Bartholomew.
He’s taken part in parades, spo-
ken to students at local schools
and developed an affi nity for
beer spas.
“In every village around
there. There are plaques and
monuments and signs. They
will never forget,” Thompson
said.
Some of the friendships he’s
developed with Czech natives
over the years now span three
decades, and honors of differ-
ent types keep pouring in. Two
of the more recent ones have
come from the modern day
mayor of Nýrany. The fi rst was
a one-of-a-kind wood carving
featuring an American soldier,
the insignia of the 16th Divi-
sion and the seal of town of
Nýrany. Another one will have
to wait a while, but Thomp-
son has a sneak preview hang-
ing outside his residence at
Emerald Pointe in Keizer. It’s
a Czech street sign bearing
Thompson’s name.
“This year, I went over and
the mayor said he had a spe-
cial gift, but he couldn’t give
it to me. He said he was nam-
ing a street after me, but they
can’t do it before I’m dead,”
Thompson said.
Every year, Thompson is
absolutely certain that the Lib-
eration Day can’t get any bet-
ter. Every year, at least for him,
it does.
“The biggest change is
there are fewer vets now than
there were. In the fi rst year I
went, there were 20 or 30 of
us. This year, there was only
three,” Thompson said.
The hardest thing to adjust
to aside from the red carpet
treatment was getting used to
being called a hero.
“That made me uneasy be-
cause it was the guys who nev-
er made it home that were he-
roes. I only got used to it after
I realized they were calling the
American Army heroes. I can
live with that,” Thompson said.
That is a fi ne hair to split
but, after spending a little time
with Thompson, it becomes
clear that the Czech citizens
mean precisely what they say.
KFD gets gifts from Czechia
George
Thompson
brought back
gifts for the
Keizer Fire
District from his
most recent trip
to Czechia.
ARE ONLY AT
B OUCHER J EWELERS
503-393-0701 • 4965 R IVER R OAD N • M ONDAY -F RIDAY 9-6 • S ATURDAY 9-5
Father’s Day is Sunday, June 17
KEIZERTIMES/
Eric A. Howald
Keizer resident George
Thompson will be delivering
a gift box of patches and pins
from fi re departments in the
Czechia along with a statue of
St. Florian, the patron saint of
fi refi ghters in the Czechia, to
the Keizer Fire District Friday,
June 8.
Thompson struck up a
friendship with one of his hosts
who also volunteered for his
local fi re department years ago.
Thompson took a set of KFD
patches to the department a
year ago. Last month, the chief
of several Czech fi re depart-
ments presented Thompson
with the patches, pins, and stat-
ue to give to Keizer Fire.
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